JOHN LIGGETT and the murder of LBJ look-alike, JAY BERT PECK
On Tuesday, March 27, 1974, 44-year-old Dorothy A. Peck of 1202 Melrose
in Garland, Texas, staggered from her home and asked a neighbor to
summon police and firemen. She had been brutally beaten and a fire had
been started from clothing stuffed beneath her bed. Her bed had been
destroyed and her bedroom scorched before firemen doused the flames.
She had been left for dead, but she survived to identified her
assailant. From her hospital bed, she identified John Melvin Liggett as
the man who had accompanied her home from a bar the night before,
attacked her with a hammer, and set fire to her bed.
Curiously, approximately 5 years earlier on July 5, 1969, Jay Bert Peck,
of the same Garland address and presumably Mrs. Peck husband (although
he was nearly 30 years her senior), was murdered at the same location.
Mrs. Peck heard a shot in the bedroom, rushed in and found Peck in bed
with a bullet wound in his head. He was rushed to Parkland Hospital
where he died 12 hours later. Peck, a cousin of Lyndon Johnson, and an
LBJ look-alike, achieved a certain degree of notoriety impersonating the
president. He made appearances at parties and political functions. He
even had a small part in Dean Martin’s Matt Helm movie, The Wrecking
Crew, in which he appeared as the president.
After Liggett’s arrest, police started looking into possible Liggett
involvement in several unsolved murders. Susan Thompson Payne, a
41-year-old women was found dead in a fire-gutted North Dallas apartment
on February 10, 1974. Her body had been mutilated and sexually abused.
There were several other fire-related murders in the Dallas area in the
early 70s and Liggett was a prime suspect.
All of the above information is in the public domain, in Harrison
Livingstone’s book, “Killing Kennedy”, in contemporary newspaper
accounts (Dallas Morning News), and in Nigel Turner’s TV show. Here are
some unanswered questions:
· Was John Melvin Liggett part of a witness elimination program as claimed by Harrison Livingstone in “Killing Kennedy”?
· It seems very likely the Liggett did try to kill Mrs. Peck. Did he
also murder Jay Bert Peck? Did Peck know something and was that what got
him killed? Did he tell his wife and was that the reason an attempt was
made on her life? Is there any significance to the fact the Peck was a
relative of LBJ? Or is this just another one of those coincidences that
keep cropping up in this case?
· What did the other murder victims know?
· As reported by Livingstone, Larry Howard of the Assassination
Information Center was looking into this case in 1993 when he had two
strokes and died. Is there a connection?
· What does Billie Sol Estes know about this case? He’s been shopping the story around.
Thanks to Walt Brown for providing several key leads.
Here are some photos that may be of interest to readers of this forum:
Jay Bert Peck appeared in the Dean Martin Matt Helm film, “The Wreaking
Crew.” He was paid $1,000 for this brief appearance and is credited in
the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) as J.B. Pick. Even though it’s
only a shot from the rear, the resemblance is quite striking.
[attachment=2151:attachment]
Here is a publicity shot for the film. This picture appeared in
Newsweek, August 5, 1968. The lovely lady on the left is Elke Sommer,
one of the stars of the film.
[attachment=2152:attachment]
This is a photo of Jay Bert Peck that was printed with his obituary in the Dallas Morning News, July 6, 1969.
[attachment=2153:attachment]
Here’s a picture of John Melvin Liggett printed in the Dallas Morning
News on March 31, 1974 after his arrest for the attempted murder of
Dorothy Peck.
[attachment=2154:attachment]
